


Better With You

by MayQueen517



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Raleigh Beckett is obsessed with ugly Christmas sweaters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 05:27:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9057502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayQueen517/pseuds/MayQueen517
Summary: There isn't a Shatterdome you can travel to where Sasha and Aleksis can't find a way to provide you with whatever you're looking for.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BaronVonChop](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BaronVonChop/gifts).



> I'm sorry that this is woefully late today. This season has been exceptionally difficult thanks to working retail, so time got away from me. However, you are always welcome to request more fic from me, if you'd like!
> 
> At any rate, I wanted to write about the lovely Kaidanovskies and touch on how much Mako et al mean to them. I hope you love it!

It is an accepted rule in the Shatterdome, no matter where you are, that if you ask the Kaidanovskies for something? They will find a way to get it to you. Within reason, of course. 

 

They are, in fact, the people to see if you're running low on chalk (Hermann) or even scalpel blades (Newt). For others, they are who you see if you're thinking of a unique gift (classic vinyl for Tendo from Alison). 

 

The point is, there isn't a Shatterdome you can travel to where Sasha and Aleksis can't find a way to provide you with whatever you're looking for.

 

There is a price, though. 

 

===

 

“A sweater?” Alekis reads off, looking to Mako with a massive raised eyebrow. He looks bemused as Mako huffs on a laugh; she nods easily. 

 

“Would be for Raleigh, yes?” Sasha asks as Aleksis barks out a laugh. Aleksis can't help but remember all the sweaters that Raleigh used to wear proudly while Yancy groaned. It makes the memory bittersweet but that is the way of their lives now, he thinks quietly. 

 

“Yes. He was telling Chuck about it and said that he missed his old ones,” Mako says, grinning up at Aleksis. He shares a glance with Sasha as he squeezes Mako’s shoulder affectionately. 

 

“We can get this done,” Sasha says, slinging her arm around Mako's shoulders, rings clanking together as she makes a fist, bumping Aleksis’. 

 

“How mu-”

 

“On the 'dome,” Sasha says fondly. Aleksis snorts. 

 

“ _Your favoritism is showing, darling,_ ” Aleksis mutters in Russian, smiling, making Sasha stick her tongue out at him. His home, such as it is, has never been as warm as it is at Sasha's side. He watches her mother-hen Mako, gently bullying her into taking some tea from their chipped and well-loved service. Sighing with fond resignation, he starts a handful of intranet messages to track down long-loved tacky sweaters. 

 

===

 

“Try the old Shatterdome haunts,” Tendo advises over coffee strong enough to clean every last synapse of Cherno’s systems. 

 

“Icebox, _da_?” Aleksis asks, watching the bustle of the LOCCENT terminals. It's warmer here than anywhere else, people everywhere but nobody stands out in the same way as Tendo Choi (the soon-to-be proud owner of classic Alice In Chains vinyl courtesy of Sasha's ex-girlfriend). His hair is perfectly coiffed and Aleksis can't help the rush of fondness. 

 

“Last place their footlockers woulda been, yeah,” Tendo says, getting that pensive expression that comes with loss. Aleksis pulls him into a hug, smacking a kiss onto his cheeks, grinning at the surprise there. 

 

“Brother, not that I'm complaining but you know as well as I do, we gotta talk with Ali and Sasha,” he says with a wide grin. Aleksis scoffs. 

 

“Pah, information takes precedence,” Aleksis says as he strolls out of LOCCENT smugly. 

 

===

 

The sweaters arrive in a musty box, carefully packed at one point. There are three of them; one a clear copy of a Weasley sweater. It makes Sasha laugh even as she uses one of their laundry ration chits to clean the three. They're hideous and exactly as bad as Aleksis remembers. 

 

While Sasha ferries laundry back and forth, Aleksis starts the process of wrapping all of the small, easy presents acquired over the last month.

 

“Remember the first time we did this?” Sasha says, sitting down with the final sweater. They're unwieldy but well-loved, as Aleksis hands over the tape. 

 

“Was for Jasper, _da_ ,” Aleksis says fondly. He remembers tracking down the menorah that had gotten misplaced over the many different moves in those early days. He remembers all the runs they made for Scott Hansen; Aleksis remembers liking him. It's never simple he thinks, tuning back into Sasha. 

 

“...So I told her to come see us after Christmas,” Sasha says, looking over at Aleksis’ pause. She smiles at him, rubbing her foot against one of his. 

 

“Vanessa might come see you while I drop these off,” she says, obviously repeating herself without any rancor. She's so soft like this, in a pair of his old sweats and a shirt she's had since before he knew her and knew how important her life would make his. Aleksis puts the last piece of tape on his box before he pushes it to the side. He pulls her over, wrapping his arms around her. 

 

“And what do we get you for Christmas?” Aleksis asks, kissing her gently. The warm weight of her sprawled across his chest is as comforting as ever. Her hair smells like the soap they all use (though he has some handmade shampoo bars courtesy of Vanessa Gottlieb especially for Sasha), but he can still smell the scent of her lipstick. She shrugs against him. 

 

“You. Always enough,” she murmurs, stretching up to press a fierce kiss against his lips. She kisses like a punch from Cherno, as if their Jaeger is piloted by her passion. He kisses her back, wanting nothing more to hold her and be held. 

 

“Is that all?” He murmurs against her lips, “seems lacking,” he teases. There's a pair of bracelets waiting for him on the floor from a tech, made entirely of parts of Cherno so they're never far away. He thinks of all the Christmas nights before Sasha when he had nothing and nobody and how long the nights were. She wriggles in his arms, sitting up to look him in the eye. 

 

“Christmas was awful before you,” she says firmly, echoing his thoughts as she has these many years. She kisses him sharply. “You make it better,” she says, holding his face between her hands. 

 

It is an echo of their entire relationship and when he kisses her, wrapping forgotten, he leaves the past in the past. 

 

(The next day, upon seeing Raleigh Beckett beaming across the canteen, Aleksis has to stop to laugh. Not at his sweater, that lights up, but at the look of pure hatred on Chuck's face above his own sweater. Mako looks far more pleased and it's honestly the best thing Aleksis could have asked for.)


End file.
